Nadene Goldfoot
Israel said Thursday that militants have handed over the body of one of the last four remaining hostages taken during the Oct. 7, 2023, attack that launched the war in Gaza. Israel identified the body as that of Meny Godard, who was abducted from Kibbutz Be'eri in southern Israel. He was a lover of the ocean and the people. Godard was a professional soccer player before enlisting in the Israeli military and serving in the 1973 Mideast War, according to Kibbutz Be’eri. He served in a variety of different positions in the kibbutz, including at its printing press.
Godard, a former soccer pro, war veteran, economist and lifeguard, was murdered at Kibbutz Be’eri while in their home along with his wife Ayelet, 63, on Oct. 7. Evidently Ayelet was killed and only Meny's body was taken as hostage. Godard, 73, was murdered by Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorists The couple is survived by their four children, Mor, Gal, Bar, and Goni, seven grandchildren and several siblings.
IDF troops salute the casket containing the body of hostage Meny Godard after it was returned by Hamas, during a short ceremony led by IDF Chief Rabbi Brig. Gen. Eyal Krim (right) in the Gaza Strip, November 13, 2025. (Israel Defense Forces)
In the wake of the October 7 attacks that sparked the Gaza war, Hamas and other Palestinian militant groups abducted 251 people from Israel to the Gaza Strip, including children, women, and elderly people.
For each hostage returned, Israel has released the remains of 15 Palestinians, an exchange central to the ceasefire’s first phase. Overall, the number of bodies of Palestinians received so far is 330, of which only 95 have been formally identified, according to Gaza Health Ministry officials.
Hamas, in a joint statement with Palestinian Islamic Jihad, said that the body had been located in the Khan Younis area of southern Gaza earlier on Thursday. Footage aired by Al Jazeera earlier in the day showed heavy equipment digging through rubble in Khan Younis, before masked gunmen dug up white plastic sheeting apparently containing the body. They had taken his body and buried it away from the Kibbutz.
The remains of 25 hostages have been returned to Israel since the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas began on Oct. 10. There are still three more in Gaza that need to be recovered and handed over. Hamas returned 20 living hostages to Israel on Oct. 13. The bodies of three slain hostages now remain held in the Strip — two Israelis and one Thai national: Master Sgt. Ran Gvili, Dror Or and Sudthisak Rinthalak.
The PMO said that Israel was “determined, committed, and working tirelessly” to bring back the remaining three slain hostages for burial, adding that Hamas is “required to fulfill its commitments to the mediators and return them as part of the implementation of the agreement.”
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